A Delhi court on Saturday issued a bailable warrant against YouTuber Dhruv Rathee in a 2018 defamation case after court officials reported that his residence was found locked, preventing them from serving the summons.
 

Judicial Magistrate Rahul Jain issued the warrant in a case filed by Vikas Pandey, a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s IT cell. Pandey had alleged that Rathee defamed him through a video uploaded on his YouTube channel.
 

The detailed court order is awaited. The next hearing in the matter has been scheduled for October 31.
 

Court Had Issued Fresh Summons on October 12
 

The latest development comes days after the court issued fresh summons to Rathee on October 12. At the time, the court observed that the complainant had been trying to serve the summons on the YouTuber for several years.
 

The court had directed that fresh summons be sent to Rathee’s residence in Gurugram, Haryana. However, the latest attempt to serve the summons was unsuccessful as the residence was found locked, according to the court official’s report.
 

Rathee was first summoned in the case in July 2019.
 

Complainant’s Lawyer Makes Submission Before Court
 

Samaksh Sharma, the lawyer representing Vikas Pandey, told the court that Rathee generally resides in Austria and had come to India to participate in protests in Delhi organised by the Cockroach Janata Party.
 

The court subsequently issued the bailable warrant and fixed October 31 for the next hearing.
 

The case concerns Pandey’s allegation that a video posted by Rathee on his YouTube channel had defamed him. The allegations remain part of the ongoing legal proceedings.